20 Things You Should Know about me (ready or not!)

1. I was born in New Jersey in 1960. My father immigrated from Ireland. My mother's family has been in America since the 1600's.

2. I am married to a wonderful photographer. He's talented, intelligent and has a big heart. We do not have children, but we do have two dogs and two cats.

3. I love New York City. I equally love the fact that I don't live there.

4. Years ago I dated a guy that liked to ski. He talked me into trying it. I loved it. Not so thrilled with the guy so I kept the sport....Ditched the guy.

5. I love figure skating. As I child I watched as Peggy Fleming won her Olympic gold medal. I wanted to do that. I didn't have the opportunity until a few years ago. Now, as an adult I am taking skating lessons and skate 3 mornings a week before work.

6. In spite of #4 and #5 above, I am not athletic. I said I love to ski and I love to skate. I did not say I was good at either.

7. In the past I have done counted cross stitch, embroidery and needlepoint. Then a couple of years ago I started quilting. I haven't looked back since.

8. I love traditional quilt designs. I don't know that I'll ever be an "art quilter", as much as I admire those who are. I am studying this book so I don't get pigeon-holed into thinking there is only one way to do traditional.

9. I only hand quilt. Not because I'm a quilting snob, but because I didn't know much about sewing machines when I got mine. It handles most things beautifully, but doesn't handle free motion quilting.

10. I have also recently started to knit.

11. I love Chopin, Beethoven, The rolling Stones and Bruce Springsteen. I listen to and enjoy all kinds of music. I do not know how to play an instrument.

12. Someday I will learn to play the violin.

13. I work in the insurance industry. I am currently suffering from job burn out. I have not had a vacation in 2 years. 'nuff said!

14. I am going on vacation next week (the first in 2 years).

15. I enjoy traveling and seeing new sights, but don't get to do it as much as I would like.

16. I enjoy cooking, love eating and especially love chocolate.

17. I love to spend time with my family and friends. I have two best friends. One I've known since we were 5 years old. The other is a relative newcomer at only a dozen years or so.

18. One of the coolest things I've ever done was ride a bicycle from Raliegh, NC to Lawrenceville, NJ for charity. 500 plus miles in one week. It was to raise money for a home for runaway and abused children. It was hard. It was worth it.

19. I love gardens. Especially French, Italian and English Cottage gardens. I have not been so successful in my own gardening endeavors. Yet.

20. I believe, you can only fail if you give up. As long as you're still trying you haven't failed, you just haven't gotten it yet.

How this journey came about.

I'm taking on this study of the book with a group of quilters. I had never even heard of the book until I read the postings about it on the Quilter's Forum. That was several days after the original post. So I joined the group, set up my blog (Me? Blogging!) and a couple of days later bought the book. I immediately read the introduction and began my morning pages the next day. (I'm glad they're kept private!)
I'm looking forward to getting to know the group members...and myself..better.

There's several of us from the quilter's forum @ ask.com that are going to study the book, The Artist's Way. I hope to get more in tune with my creative side. I want to stop saying "I wish I had thought of that".